


Like Calls to Like

by AngeNoir



Series: Write-Away Giveaway Fills on Tumblr [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Mugging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-19
Updated: 2013-05-19
Packaged: 2017-12-12 07:09:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/808739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngeNoir/pseuds/AngeNoir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He falls to Midgard in a dank alley, and wakes up when someone tries to steal his cloak.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Calls to Like

**Author's Note:**

> As a celebration for reaching 100 followers on tumblr, I'm holding a giveaway [here](http://outercorner.tumblr.com/post/51036127748/write-away-giveaway-last-call-3-hours-left), and what I'm giving away is prompt fills for anyone who asks! I received this prompt from [lokisherlockdtheimpalaindatardis](http://lokisherlockdtheimpalaindatardis.tumblr.com):
> 
>   _Hi, I saw your giveaway post and I was wondering if you could write a story where a girl gets attacked/mugged and Loki show up and save her?_

It shouldn’t bother him.

Cruelties like this exist every day. He’s seen it in Asgard, and he’s seen it here. Life is ruthless and brutal and takes no prisoners. Everything is either helpful or harmful and there is no third option. Loki understands the rules of the world better than most, now, and he won’t ever forget them.

So it really shouldn’t bother him.

The problem, he supposes, rests in the fact that when the girl found him, she had promptly stolen his cloak and, when he had started to come around and react, pretended she had been trying to help him up, see if he was alright.

 _Liar_ , he had thought, almost fondly. The Liesmith knows his own creation when it touches on the air, and he roughly takes the cloak back, bundles himself up, and walked further into the alley.

Why he had fallen out here, he did not know. He had been imprisoned – his mind shied from long, endless hours, mindless and monotonous, with nothing but the sound of his own voice to keep him company – and he had broken free. He knew he must be on Midgard, but where he knew not, and he cared not, so long as he had time to get stronger in order to protect himself.

The girl apparently inhabited this alley. She was not pretty, not in the Asgard or Midgard way, and was not particularly healthy or clean. She reminded Loki of the wyrms in the deep, sly and quicksilver and too clever for their own good. She stole, she lied, she sold her body and made fun of the fools as she picked their pockets while they were unguarded with her.

It shouldn’t bother him. She was beneath him. They all were, these puling creatures, ruled by instinct and base desires. None of them matched a fraction of his strength and majesty.

So when three men cornered the female and held her down, ugly threats tainting the air, her desperation a roiling mess of black and sickly blue, _it should not have bothered him_.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

The men stopped and turned, facing him, as he stood up from where he had hidden himself with his magic, shedding his shield and stepping into the light. “You don’t want to get involved, man,” one male said, an ugly leer stretching his face.

“I really, really don’t,” Loki sighed, stepping forward, and then he had grabbed one of the men’s knives, slit the owner’s throat, twisted around to throw it into the throat of a second, before facing the third man.

He broke and ran. Cowards and pigs, the lot of them. Humans were worthless.

The girl curled up on the ground, eyes hard and unforgiving. “Didn’t need your help,” she muttered, defiant and curled up over her pride. “I could handle it.”

“Your lies amuse me,” Loki yawned. “Go pick another pocket and bring back food for the both of us. A god needs to eat, same as you.”

“I don’t owe you anything.”

Loki grinned, mad and ruthless, and felt a coil of satisfaction mixed with hurt as she cowered away from him. “Of course you do,” he crooned. “Unlike your attackers, though, I have more class and taste. I don’t need your pitiful body or possessions.”

The girl licked her lips. “What do you need, then? Why’d you stick around?”

Loki could not explain his next words, or the pride he felt in her continued bravery against all odds, the approval he felt when he saw she was still searching for a way out, a bargain to make.

_Liesmith. Silver-tongue. God of Chaos and Mischief._

“I need… a guide to this world,” Loki said finally. “I have many plans for it.”

He knew she would run the minute their bargain stopped being beneficial. He knew he’d likely backstab her, just as she would be looking to turn on him.

He couldn’t wait.


End file.
